malaysian airlines flight 370
THE PERFECT CRASH

by
ROBERT J. LEWIS

___________________________________

 

It is a record of those things
we pray to be delivered from.
The Proposition (film)

 

What we learn from Guinness World Records is that unfulfilled people will go to incredible lengths (risking life not excluded) to acquire, however fleetingly, fame and celebrity.

This same twisted mindset informs men who dream of committing the perfect murder for no other reason than getting away with it. The challenge of the perfect murder is how to dispose of the body, the incriminating evidence. Murdered bodies have been weighted with cement and dropped into rivers, lakes and oceans, and burned to ash and buried in the most secretive places, and dissolved in potent mixes of chemicals and acids. No body, no murder = the perfect murder.

So why not the perfect plane crash? Let’s hypothesize that MH370’ pilot, Zaharie Ahmad Shahin, now 53-years-old, is in the midst of andropause (the male equivalent of menopause), and can’t deal with being, pace the Paul McCartney lyric, “half the man I used to be.” Battling depression but in denial, he suddenly becomes excited by the idea of authoring the world’s first perfect crash of a jetliner -- the perfect fix his depression can’t refuse.

On his flight simulator at home, he learns how to disable the data-reporting systems and transponder. He determines that the optimal place to disappear the plane is the deepest part of the Indian ocean. Prior to that, he knows he has to erase all incriminating evidence from his simulator’s hard drive, and once air-borne dispose of his co-pilot. Since getting rid of the body (the plane) is the key to committing and getting away with the perfect crash, he calculates the slowest speed his Boeing 777ER plane can fly without crashing and then gently eases (angles) it into the water so it sinks sealed and whole: no wreckage, no debris. Anticipating a cabin crew member or passenger attempting to open the door as the plane is going under, he has already figured out how to either lock the exit doors, or, earlier, at 45,000 feet, permanently decommissioned all the passengers and crew. Everything goes to plan. The plane is never found.

The perfect crash.

 

 

YOUR COMMENTS

Email Address (not required)

COMMENTS

schrufer@videotron.ca
I do have two rather important points to make: First, his backgrounds are not washed out but rather they are robust, agitated brush strokes that not only enhance the neutral greys but allow the sitter to come forward toward the viewer . Second, he is one among a few great portraitists such as Modigliani, Lucien Freud and Alice Neal etc. but surely not the only great artist able to depict the psychological depth of his or her sitter. You're absolutely right when you say that one can feel his own angst transmitted in his work. Thanks for reminding us to take another look at a great.

dondewey601@msn.com
Playboy photographers aside, has there ever been any serious artist who wasn't interested in "flesh qua flesh but in the manner in which the bone structure and skeleton relate to the spirit?"

 

also by Robert J. Lewis:
The Jazz Solo
Chat Rooms & Infidels
Music Fatigue
Understanding Rape
Have Idea Will Travel
Bikini Jihad
The Reader Feedback Manifesto
Caste the First Stone
Let's Get Cultured
Being & Baggage
Robert Mapplethorpe
1-800-Philosophy
The Eclectic Switch
Philosophical Time
What is Beauty?
In Defense of Heidegger
Hijackers, Hookers and Paradise Now
Death Wish 7 Billion
My Gypsy Wife Tonight
On the Origins of Love & Hate
Divine Right and the Unrevolted Masses
Cycle Hype or Genotype
The Genocide Gene